Superntural Season 8 Recap: The Road So Far

    Season eight of Supernatural begins with Dean’s return from Purgatory one year after having killed Dick Roman. He doesn’t return alone, however, and Dean’s first order of business is to return Benny’s soul to his remains. While it’s a bit shocking to realize that Dean has a vampire for a friend, we learn through flashbacks that Benny was a loyal friend to Dean in Purgatory and was the one who showed him how to get out. Dean and Sam are finally reunited back at Rufus’s cabin, though it’s never quite explained how Sam knew to come to the cabin. We learn that Sam has quit hunting and didn’t look for Dean or try to get him out of Purgatory. Sam hit a dog, met a girl, and settled down with her.

       Sam agrees to help find Kevin Tran. When they finally track him down, they learn he escaped from Crowley with another Word of God tablet. This one is all about demons and explains how to shut the gates of Hell forever. Crowley almost traps them and does kill Kevin’s girlfriend Channing. Kevin then insists they get his mother so they can protect her. When they go to get the tablet, it has been taken from where Kevin hid it. They find out that the god Plutus has stolen it and is going to auction it. Crowley possesses Mrs Tran and then escapes with the tablet. Kevin takes his mother and escapes from the Winchesters.
    While they search for Kevin, the brothers look into a few other cases. They find a group of transplant recipients who have received organs from an ancient Mayan who received eternal life from the God Cacao. They also come across a video made by three young people who were investigating a werewolf attack and then became werewolves.

    In “Blood Brother,” Dean goes to Benny’s rescue after receiving a phone call from the vampire. Benny is going after the vampire that turned him and ultimately killed him. We learn that Benny was killed because he’d abandoned his nest when he fell in love with Andrea Kormos. Benny is shocked to learn that his maker turned Andrea and she is now his second in command. Ultimately, Benny kills his maker and Dean kills Andrea to protect Benny. Sam comes to help and meets Benny, learning the truth about Benny being a vampire.
    In “Southern Comfort,” the brothers team up with Garth to hunt down the spectre of a Confederate soldier. They learn that Garth has taken over for Bobby as a mentor and resource for the hunting community. Tension rises between the brothers over Benny, whom Sam thinks shouldn’t be trusted.

    In “A Little Slice of Kevin,” Kevin is captured by Crowley who has also captured all the other potential prophets. Castiel mysteriously reappears from Purgatory with no memory of how he escaped. He tells Dean that Dean shouldn’t feel guilty about not getting him out. Dean had searched all over Purgatory to find Castiel and swore to Benny that either all three of them would get out or no one. At the last minute, Castiel pulled away from Dean by his own choice because he still felt he needed to do penance for the wrongs he had committed. Castiel is able to help Dean and Sam rescue Kevin and half the demon tablet. They hide Kevin on Garth’s houseboat. Castiel suddenly appears in an office with Naomi, another angel. She wants him to spy on the Winchesters and report back to her as payment for her having rescued him from Purgatory. Castiel is unable to remember or tell the Winchesters about Naomi who is controlling him.
    “Hunteri Heroici” is a mostly light-hearted episode in which Castiel tries to become a hunter and finds a case to work with the brothers. It seems cartoons are coming to life, but turns out that it is the side-effect of a psychic, retired hunter. In flashbacks, Sam remembers meeting Amelia’s father and learning that Amelia’s husband who was presumed dead was actually alive.

    In “Citizen Fang,” it seems that Benny has fallen off the wagon and started killing people. Sam has Martin Creaser, a hunter the brothers had last seen in an insane asylum, following Benny. Dean doesn’t believe that Benny is guilty. Benny is in town working for his great-granddaughter Elizabeth, and one of his old nest is trying to goad him into joining his nest. Martin knocks Dean out and he and Sam go after Benny. Dean sends Sam a text pretending to be Amelia and Sam drives to Kermit, Texas to make sure she is alright. Dean and Benny kill the other vampire, but then Martin kidnaps Elizabeth and Benny kills Martin.
    Sam sees Amelia, who is now back with her husband Don, but they both still want to be together. In “Torn and Frayed,” Sam considers giving up hunting to be with her. Meanwhile, Dean and Castiel try to rescue the angel Samandriel from Crowley. Ultimately, they enlist Sam’s help too. They rescue him only for Naomi to command Castiel to kill him. Crowley learns that there is an angel tablet like the demon tablet. Dean ultimately decides by the end of this episode that he has to cut himself off from Benny, and Sam decides not to go back to Amelia.

    The Winchesters encounter Charlie Bradbury twice this season. In “LARP and the Real Girl,” they find that she is the Queen of a LARPing community. Her subjects have been being killed off as one of the LARPers has ensnared a fairy to win the Queen’s favor. In “Pac-Man Fever,” Charlie brings a case to them. She has been researching hunting and has discovered a new kind of Djinn. The brothers learn that she has been on the run since she was 12 after getting into trouble by hacking a computer game after her father was killed and her mother left in a coma from a car accident. Dean helps her come to grips with letting her mother go.
    In “Freaks and Geeks,” Sam and Dean are reunited with Krissy Chambers. Krissy’s father has been killed and she and other hunter-kids have been taken in by a Fagin-like hunter who is training them to be super-hunters. However, he’s turning innocent people into vampires for the kids to kill for false vengeance. Victor kills himself and the kids decide to live on their own. Another stand-alone episode, “Remember the Titans,” has Sam and Dean helping Prometheus break the curse that will see his son Oliver die every day. In “Man’s Best Friend With Benefits,” Sam and Dean help James Frampton, someone they’d helped before, who is now a witch.

    One of the season’s biggest moments comes in “As Time Goes By,” when the boys’ grandfather, Henry Winchester, comes forward in time in search of their father, John. Sam and Dean learn about a secret society called the Men of Letters and that they themselves are legacies. Henry is followed forward in time by a Knight of Hell, the demon Abbadon. Henry is killed in the fight to kill Abbadon, but the brothers are given a key to a secret Men of Letters Bunker. The brothers move into the Bunker which houses a huge library and many artifacts. In “Everybody Hates Hitler,” the brothers learn about the secret Thule Society, and with the help of Aaron, the son of Rabbi Bass, and his Golem, they are able to defeat the Thule.
    In “Trial and Error,” Kevin finally deciphers the demon tablet enough to discover that there are three trials that must be performed to shut the gates of Hell. Deciphering the tablet is taking an incredible toll on Kevin, and as the season progresses he becomes more and more haggard. The first trial is to kill a Hellhound, so Sam and Dean go in search of one. Dean is determined that he is the one who will do the trials because he sees himself as dying in the line of duty, while Sam sees something more for himself. In the end, Sam is the one to kill the Hellhound and take on the burden of the trials which begin to take an incredible physical toll on him. At first, he tries to hide this from Dean, but eventually, once he realizes Dean knows anyway, he admits to his growing weakness.

    In “Goodbye Stranger,” Castiel and Meg help the brothers hunt down the angel tablet. In fact, Naomi has tasked Castiel with bringing the tablet to her and commands Castiel to kill Dean in order to get it away from him. Castiel is able to break the control Naomi has over him and heals Dean after almost beating him to death. Castiel then flees with the angel tablet. Meg is apparently killed by Crowley as she holds him off to allow the brothers to escape.
    In “Taxi Driver,” Kevin reveals that the second task is to free an innocent soul from Hell. They learn that Bobby is actually in Hell, not Heaven as they suspected. The brothers find a demon who will take Sam into Hell. The portal leads through Purgatory. Before the demon can get Sam and Bobby back out, he is killed by Crowley. This forces Dean to ask for the ultimate favor from Benny. Benny agrees to let Dean kill him so he can get into Purgatory and show Sam how to get out. When it comes time to get out of Purgatory, Benny refuses and decides to stay in Purgatory as he wasn’t happy back on Earth. Both Naomi and Crowley show up and face off over Bobby’s soul. Naomi is victorious and helps release Bobby’s soul back to Heaven.

    In “The Great Escapist,” Kevin has been captured by Crowley, but Crowley is keeping up the illusion that Kevin is still on Garth’s houseboat. Kevin eventually does see through the illusion. Meanwhile, Naomi is hunting for Castiel and eventually captures him and tortures him to try to find the angel tablet. Ion, one of Naomi’s angels, has actually become a double agent for Crowley, and Crowley shows up and kidnaps Castiel. He also tortures him but discovers that Cas has hidden the tablet in his own stomach. Meanwhile, Dean and Sam go in search of Metatron. They find him surrounded by books and stories. He’d escaped from Heaven to protect the tablets from the Archangels. The brothers are able to convince Metatron to get involved now, and he saves Kevin from Crowley. Kevin reveals that the last trial is to heal a demon. Metatron warns Dean that shutting the gates of Hell forever might have consequences that Dean won’t like or hasn’t anticipated. Dean is convinced that completing the trials is the only way for Sam to be well. As they drive back to the Bunker, they find an injured Cas on the road.

    The second last episode of the season, “Clip Show,” finds the brothers attempting to complete the final trial. They find instructions in the Bunker for how to perform an exorcism that appears to heal a demon. They decide to dig up the remains of Abaddon and put her back together to heal her. Abaddon escapes, and Crowley tells the brothers that he is in the process of killing everyone they’ve ever saved, which sends the brothers to protect Sarah Blake whom they saved in season one’s “Provenance.” Even their best demon-proofing can’t save her. Crowley gives them an ultimatum and tells them he’s relying on his mother’s witch heritage so as to prevent them from getting anywhere near a demon. Meanwhile Metatron convinces Castiel that he should help him shut the gates of Heaven to force the angels to settle their differences and to keep any heavenly violence from spilling out on earth. Like the demon tablet, the angel tablet outlines a series of trials. Metatron makes Castiel kill a Nephillim to complete the first trial, which Metatron knows by heart as he was the one to write them down in the first place. Castiel doesn’t seem to suffer from the same ill after effects as Sam. The episode ends with Sam not sure he is willing to sacrifice the people they saved to shut the gates of Hell. Dean is determined that they need to finish what they’ve started.
    This week’s episode, the season finale, is titled “Sacrifice” and is written by Jeremy Carver. Do you think the brothers will complete the trials and seal the gates of Hell forever? Will Crowley survive if they do? Do you think we’ve seen the last of Naomi? Do you think Metatron is being completely honest with Castiel? Will Castiel complete the trials? Let me know what you are most excited for going into the finale in the comments below.